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Our ring bearer started raising pigeons when he was in junior high, and continued to “home” them after PTSD-type service in the hells of Vietnam. He knows a lot about pigeons. I don’t–I only see them crapping under bridges and overpasses. I didn’t realize pigeon racing was such a big deal in the U.S. and other countries until a New York Times article revealed big money in a multi-million dollar gambling industry. Naturally when big dough is involved humans will do anything to animals to shave the betting odds. It’s ironic that three birds suspected of having “doping” owners were named Ben Johnson, Marian Jones, and Lance Armstrong by competitors. Ben and Marian were Olympic track champions before their gold medals were taken away from them because they “doped” themselves. And everybody knows about Lance Armstrong, the All-American bicycle “doper.”
In major pigeon races all birds are now tested for illegal doping and performance-enhancing drugs. In a recent race of up to 600 miles six birds failed their drug tests. Five had human painkillers in their blood; one tested positive for cocaine. None of this particularly surprises me. We dope horses, greyhounds, pigs, and just about every animal that runs, swims, or flies. Anything for a buck. A pigeon-doping “clinic” was recently closed down in Miami. What did surprise me was the fact that a billionaire businessman bought a racing pigeon named Usain Bolt (after the Jamaican world sprint champion) in May, 2013 for $430,000. It takes an above-average U.S. worker ten years to make that kind of money.

What Happens When The One Percent Own 38 Percent Of American Wealth And The Bottom 60 Percent Own Only 2.3 Percent?

While the real unemployment rate is closer to 14 percent instead of 7.2 percent, over 95 percent of all income between 2009 and 2012 went to the One Percent.  Our roads, bridges, airports, and railroad lines are crumbling and we do not invest adequate funds in education, in health care, in social safety nets such as pensions and Social Security. The plutocracy has taken over the government. Over 25 percent of U.S. corporations do not pay a penny in federal income taxes. Those that do pay federal taxes contribute only 13 percent of their income. That’s a 40-year low in tax rates.
Corporations and wealthy individuals avoid an estimated $100 billion in annual taxes by stashing money in post-office-box size “offices” in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, and other small tax havens that shelter up to 30,000 corporations in a single building.
Plutocrats such as Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Michael Bloomberg, the Koch brothers, and George Soros are busy converting their economic power into political power. A plutocrat-leaning Supreme Court with decisions such as Citizens United have opened the tsunamis of cash to the wealthy to buy, bribe, or otherwise influence politicians at every level. There are 442 billionaires in the U.S. and the world added 200 in 2012 to make a total of 1,426. How can that happen during a worldwide recession? That’s when cash and assets are transferred from poor pathetic Peter to plush plutocratic Paul. Plutocrat Paul then has the dough to implement what is called “philanthrocapitalism,” a system of governing described by Matthew Bishop and Michael Green, two writers who cover business affairs.

What Is Philanthrocapitalism?

A billionaire “philancap” is a person who wants to be heavily involved in public policy and social problems. He is not interested in giving his millions to charitable groups he can’t control. Symphonies, museums, hospitals, universities, and theaters do not interest him unless he can have exclusive naming rights and choose members of the governing boards. To influence government and society, philancaps employ technocrats to do their dirty work through foundations and political PACS. This way they can have some control of their own bottom lines. But philancaps are the benefactors of an economy gone “wild’ because of lack of financial regulations. Over 76,000 pages of Catch-22, Alice-in-Wonderland, and P.T. Barnum tax laws passed by Congressional slaves gives them a huge boost. They send their little Fauntleroys to expensive private schools, employ concierge doctors, ride in stretch limos, and fly in private jets to their mansions around the world. A few are not interested in yachts.  Chrystia Freeland’s NY Times article “Plutocrats and Populists” is an excellent summary of the philosophy of philancaps.
Not only is there a huge economic winner-take-all divide between the One Percent and the 99 Percent, the plutocratic philancaps live in a Utopia on the same planet. They live an average 25 years longer than their accountants, secretaries, and servants, eat different foods, drink different booze, travel in private luxury, listen to different music, and enroll their children in private schools. They fly over New York City public schools in their helicopters, thinking that the school roofs below them leak only when it rains.

Should One In Four Kids Live In Poverty In “The Richest Country In The World?”

I see no way to revitalize a strong and healthy middle-class in this country unless we follow the absolutely plutocrat-shocking idea that the One Percent should be taxed to restore the infrastructure and equal educational opportunities. We have to be competitive or we become Rome or Egypt. Plutocrats have screwed the middle-class for at least 40 years. The One Percent created toxic subprime mortgages, hedge funds, derivatives, credit default swaps, and other Wall Street casino crap that blew up the housing bubble in 2007.  They also blew eight million jobs and about $10 trillion in assets out of the economy during Lurch’s last two years. They and their consiglieres in Washington are responsible for the Great Recession and the minuscule recovery. Now they want the poor to give up food stamps and other safety nets so they don’t have to pay for their One Percent greed.
The typical American man makes less than he did 45 years ago after adjusting for inflation. High school graduates make 40 percent less than they did 40 years ago. Wall Street banksters changed the financial rules and the rich got even richer because of huge tax cuts engineered by the owners of George W. Bush.
This is a great time to be rich in the U.S. because with the present Congress you can only get richer. While we have 16.4 million children in poverty, 5.8 million young people between ages 16 and 24 not employed or in school, and 1,168,354 homeless students, the mansions in Manhattan are selling for about $100 million and Nieman Marcus and the luxury markets are having a great year. Since 2007 we have had a 72 percent increase in homeless children attending the public schools. The National Poverty Center estimates we have 1.46 million households “living” on $2 per person per day. How can we call ourselves a world super power when we have such a huge, soft underbelly of poverty? Children live in poverty in wealthy nations only if the country permits this obscenity.
Les Leopold, author of “How To Make A Million Dollars An Hour,” has a rather simple answer to get 16.4 million children out of poverty. Our 442 billionaires have an average net worth of $4.2 billion, adding up to a total of $1.9 trillion. Since the beginning of the recovery in 2009 their wealth has increased 12 percent per year. If we taxed away six percent of that 12 percent increase, we could give 16.4 million children in poverty $7,000 a year, thus pushing most of their families over the poverty line. The math works.

Is The World Pitchfork Revolution Just Around The Corner?

The world’s financial leaders, who normally open the vaults for the rich, have to be getting nervous about the concentration of wealth. They must be hearing the rasp of sharpeners on steel tines or dreaming of those sharp tines jabbing them in their -----wallets. Two weeks ago the bankers of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank suggested it is time to review “international tax architecture” and to do “something” about the tax havens that hide trillions of dollars for corporations and individuals from their “home” tax collectors. When bankers representing 188 countries suggest that budget deficits around the world could be lowered by raising taxes on the rich, they must have caused a construction “bubble”of safe rooms in mansions and estates everywhere. When bankers say “fundamental tax issues cannot be ducked” this has to be a Def-Con 5  “cover-your-ass” message to the rich. The   French finance minister added this warning: “I can’t protest a core idea that...we need a policy to reduce “

Does A $15 Billion City Bankruptcy Have Any Relationship With A $95,000
White Truffle, A $3 Million Car, And A $18 Million-A-Year Quarterback?

Detroit, the birthplace of the world’s auto business, may have to go through bankruptcy  to settle debts of a reputed $15 billion. This could mean that retired city employees such as fire, police, and other city workers may lose their pensions. Meanwhile the Detroit Tigers baseball team with a payroll of $148 million, with a $23 million-a-year first baseman, play in a $300 million stadium, much of it financed by the public. The baseball payroll has gone up 38 percent in two years. The NBA Detroit Pistons just spent $80 million signing two players. The NFL Detroit Lions just gave their quarterback a three-year $53 million contract. A pizza guy who owns the hockey Red Wings is planning to build a $285 million arena in downtown Detroit. Joe Drape of the NY Times recently wrote an article about this sample of inequality.
All of the sports teams seem to operate with funds from another planet. A Lions defensive tackle didn’t seem to miss the $342,000 in fines assessed this year for various misdeeds. That sum might have paid for ten rookie firemen.  Isn’t it about time the politicians connect some dots?  What do we value as a society? What’s going on here? The super-rich are using the country for their personal playground. Ted Turner bought a million acres in the West so he could raise buffalo. There are a few who can afford paying $95,000 for a four-pound rare white truffle in a New York City gourmet house. Facebook billionaire Mark Zuckerberg recently spent $30 million buying four neighboring San Jose homes so he could have more privacy. He also owns a home in San Francisco.
The Dallas, Texas Safari Club is expecting to auction a black rhino permit from Namibia for $1 million in a fundraiser. The president of the U.S. Humane Society criticized the auction: “The last thing they need are wealthy elites from foreign lands coming in to kill them for their heads. Shooting a black rhino in the wild is about as difficult as shooting a parked car.” (Love that line!)

Qatar: A Microcosm Of  HowThe United States Is Becoming A Plutocracy

Qatar is a Connecticut-sized pile of desert coastal sand in the Middle East with only 250,000 natives. In the 120-degree heat the natives used to love to join in their principal job--diving for pearls. They don’t have to dive for pearls now. Qatar has over 25 billion barrels of proven oil reserves and 890 trillion cubic feet of natural gas–and the ex-pearl divers are selling it all over the world. They are the world’s richest people. They are going to host the World Cup of Soccer in 2022,  building several large air-conditioned stadiums in order to do it. The Qataris employ over 1.6 million workers from poor countries such as the Phillippines and India to do their scut work. Eighty percent of the police and army are foreign mercenaries. There is no path to citizenship. A worker from Eritrea said: “They’re rich–but they don’t share.” A member of the ruling family just bought a Cezanne painting “The Card Players” for $250 million, the highest price ever paid for a painting. Qatar has become one of the great plutocracies. Is this what we want? It’s time to wake up the philancaps and Washington and make this bumper sticker come alive: “Stop Bitching And Start The Revolution!”